1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to a card package production system with a card carrier folding apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97-1.99
Card package production systems such as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,384,196 issued May 17, 1983 to McCumber et al. entitled "Apparatus and System for Preparing Data Cards and Mailer Forms and for Attaching Data Cards to Respectively Associated Mailer Forms"; No. B1 4,034,210 issued Jul. 5, 1977 to Hill et al. entitled "Credit Card Carriers and Methods of Manufacture"; U.S. Pat. No. 4,194,685 issued Mar. 25, 1980 to Hill et al. entitled "Verifying Insertion System Apparatus and Method of Operation" and U.S. Pat. No. 4,429,217 issued Jan. 31, 1984 to Hill et al. entitled "Verifying Insertion System and Apparatus".
In known systems different types of carrier forms are used in which the cards are wedge trapped between fold lines of a bifold carrier having leading end, middle and lagging end sections. However, neither of these systems fold carriers other than those which wedge trap one or two edges of a card by folding the end sections over the middle section when the cards are mounted. Moreover, in McCumber et al., because of the cards that form corner pockets for receipt of the card are diagonal oscillating fingers were required to open the pockets to enable receipt of the carriers therein.
Moreover, none of the known card package production systems were capable of folding different types of carriers in different ways but rather were limited to a single type of carrier and a single type of folding mechanism which precludes the use of different types of carriers.